Simonds & Dennis Family Homes

When two of Australia's most iconic home-building families come together, something special happens!

We're thrilled to share this beautifully crafted animation we created for Simonds and Dennis Family Homes—celebrating the recent acquisition and bright future ahead.

The four-week timeline presented a challenge in balancing quality and speed, particularly given the visual standards we aspired to. This resulted in some slight animation changes – for example the end sequence with the birds living as a family – this was originally meant to be a timelapse style sequence with more animation that would end with the baby birds reveal. Instead, we decided to show a slow camera rotation and fade between some more beautiful, meaningful ‘moments in time’ for the bird family in their new house. Additionally, we added in different weather conditions / seasons earlier into the story to help emphasize the long period of time the birds have been seeking a new home.

Achieving the desired illustrative 3D look was another key challenge, as we aimed for a visually striking style that, when paused, could resemble a 2D illustration. Maintaining this consistency across all frames required thoughtful shading, lighting, and texturing. For the bird, keeping a clean silhouette was crucial to staying true to the 2D design concepts. We used blend shapes and a delta mush deformer to refine its form, ensuring smooth transitions and a polished final look. Rather than rigging separate models for the male and female birds, blend shapes allowed switching between the two designs. Additionally, we implemented two wing models - one open, one closed - on the same rig due to the complex nature of bird wings.

Testimonial

"It was an amazing experience working with the Jumbla team on this project! Loved watching it all unfold and come to life. Just faultless in both their process and execution. Massive thanks to everyone involved and look forward to working with the Jumbla team on another project soon!"

- Matt Collings, Creative Director, Simonds Homes